


Reconstruction

by Anonymous



Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self-Aware
Genre: M/M, benny can be a little sweet. as a treat, oh fuck it christm s and they’re gonna decorate a tree :], this may be ooc but oh well. writing hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:26:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27953072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Sometimes the holidays don’t go exactly as planned, but maybe they turn out better because of it.
Relationships: Benrey/Gordon Freeman
Comments: 4
Kudos: 69
Collections: Anonymous Fics





	Reconstruction

**Author's Note:**

> howdy gang how the FUCK do you write benry
> 
> anyways i don’t write all that much but was possessed by a Need to get this idea down when it randomly popped into my head earlier
> 
> this is pre relationship and there aren’t really any Blatantly Romantic Gestures but i did write this with gay people in mind
> 
> also when i was writing this i was thinkin. off the top of my head in hlvrai benry sure does love throwin stuff huh? good for them you go you funky lil he/they

Christmas was never really a good time for Gordon.

He really wished he had more positive memories associated with the holiday, like many others he knew, but all he remembers is being pretty much forced into a room to interact with his large and very much insufferable family when he was younger. Things they would say and do ranged from just a little annoying to reprehensible, and he never even received many gifts to at least try and make up for all of those experiences. 

Though with the presence of Joshua and the science team in his life, Gordon wanted to try and make up for all of those bad memories. 

So, here he found himself, digging through the attic to find the box of ornaments and some other decorations that would go up outside. The sun had set a while ago, partly because of it being closer to winter, but he had also checked his phone to see it was 7:55 P.M. He was almost buzzing with excitement as he looked at the time, it wasn’t too long until he had to go pick up Josh from his ex’s house. The kid had been happily chattering all week about not being able to wait until they got to decorate the tree this year, and how he was happy this was going to be his first Christmas with his dad and ‘Benny’. Gordon had never got to celebrate with his son before, which he felt awful about, because he had been too busy with his work. His only consolation was the fact that he was trying to make up for it now. 

He pushed past some worn cardboard boxes, most likely full of old little knickknacks, to finally find the plastic tub containing the ornaments. He was too distracted between his thoughts and carefully picking up the box to notice a figure appearing behind him.

“yo”

“FUCK-!” Gordon nearly dropped the box but quickly tightened his grip, whirling around to face his roommate.

“You can’t just sneak up behind me, man! I could’ve dropped all of these!” He lifted the box upwards towards the other’s face for emphasis.

“balls? you sports?” 

“Wha- no, these are for putting on the tree downstairs” 

“why would you do that?”

“I-... it’s just tradition dude”

The anomaly simply hummed, bending over to inspect the ornaments a little too intensely. Gordon shifted a bit awkwardly, repeatedly moving to take a step forward, before deciding against it. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little interested in whatever was going on in the other’s head. He tensed when he saw Benry snatch a red ornament up, remembering the guard’s history with throwing shit. 

“Hey, put that down-!”

He was cut off by Benrey raising the ornament closer to his face, letting out a red orb of sweet voice to match it. Gordon sighed and felt the tension leave his body all at once, a breathy laugh escaping him.

“Yeah? You enjoying that?” 

The other didn’t answer, keeping his gaze fixated on the ornament and sweet voice orb floating next to it. Though his flat expression didn’t change, Gordon could see the wonder behind the quickly fading red in his grey eyes. The physicist couldn’t keep the fond smile from his face as he watched his roommate roll the two orbs around in his hands. 

“Alright man, you can keep that for now, but we gotta put it up on the tree when I come home with Joshie” Gordon lightly bumped the other with his elbow, soon walking away to take the box downstairs. 

He felt lighter than air as he made his way down the hall, going through different activities he, Joshua, and the team would do in the coming days. His surroundings became fuzzy, imagining different scenarios of how the chaos of the science team would mesh with domestic holiday traditions. Darnold and Tommy could be puzzling out how to make some probably-dangerous potion cookies. Maybe Coomer was punching down the tree he and Bubby were going to take home right now. 

He was harshly ripped out of his thoughts by his foot colliding with the corner of where the hall met the staircase. A feeling of horror consumed him, stumbling as the box flew from his hands. Time seemed to slow down as he regained his balance and watched the fragile ornaments inch ever closer to the first floor. 

His good mood shattered with all of the decorations, the sharp noise almost deafening amongst the silence of the house. He stood quietly at the top of the stairs, staring down at the sea of shards below. He cycled through many emotions in a couple of seconds, disbelief, anger, grief, despair, before he directed all of these emotions towards himself. What was he going to do? What was he going to tell Joshie? Gordon felt his heart break a bit at the thought of having to disappoint his son, who had been eagerly awaiting this day. Yes, he could just go buy more ornaments tomorrow when he had more time, but that didn’t matter much to a five year old, he would be sad all the same. A part of him started scolding himself for not picking up Joshie earlier in the day, it was already around 8 o’clock, and Joshua wouldn’t have much time before he had to be put to bed. 

A large hand rested on his shoulder, the sudden contact shocking him out of his frozen state. 

“HUh- Benrey?” Gordon flinched at the sound of his own voice cracking. 

“you uh… you gonna fix that? you broke all the balls that’s. destruction of property. gonna have to fine you”

The physicist felt anger bubble in his chest, and he swatted at the hand still on his shoulder as he fixed the guard with a glare. The larger man at least took a step back when his fiery gaze was upon him, eyes widening almost imperceptibly. 

“Shut the fuck up, man, I really can’t deal with your shit right now. I just… I gotta go pick up Joshie, I’m already a little late. I need you to clean up the mess, we can’t have a kid coming into a house with sharp shit on the floor” Without waiting for any sort of response, he hurried down the stairs, deftly avoiding the shards despite the heaviness in his limbs.

So much for making good memories…

—-

It was safe to say that Benry didn’t understand a lot of human customs, not really. He thought he knew what he was doing, but Gordon kept telling him things like ‘you don’t actually turn into some huge fucked up monster on Halloween!’ and ‘no, you don’t rip the entire turkey apart! it’s just the wishbone!’. Kinda lame that Gordon kept ruining all the fun stuff on holidays. Didn’t they have some special guy who does that on Christmas? The gunch? Whoever he was, Gordon was that. 

He threw the last of the broken ornaments into the trash with his bare hands. They didn’t understand why Gordon made such a big deal about ‘sharp stuff’, it didn’t even hurt to touch, but they guessed he could be a lil baby if he wanted. It’s not like they were bothered by that, or by his outburst.

… Except they were, which was odd. Usually he just found it funny when Gordon got mad, but for some reason this specific instance made him feel… gross? The alien huffed, leaning against the wall and beginning to sift through their mind for a reason. 

It was easy to tell that Gordon was happy and excited for today, but he was also excited for Halloween, and Benry didn’t feel this bad when Gordon got on his case for shapeshifting to loom over a few houses. Was it that something was broken? That couldn’t be it either, many things have been broken by both them and Gordon, and it never elicited this feeling either. Benry began picking at his sleeves as he became more annoyed. His eyes darted around the room, yellow to teal gradually shifting to yellow to gold. Eventually, his eyes fell on a picture not too far from him on the wall. It was a recent picture, only a few months old, of Gordon and Joshua in the living room. Joshua was proudly displaying his massive collection of different cowboy toys, Gordon awkwardly posing nearby. You could also see a tall silhouette standing in the entryway, eyes flashing, which made the alien snort. He wondered if Gordon somehow didn’t notice him in the picture. As they continued to study the photo fondly, something in their mind clicked. 

Oh… this sucks because of the kid…

Joshie was thrilled when he learned that the three of them would be decorating this tree today. Now they weren’t going to be able to do that because all of the stuff they needed was broken. What’s worse is that Gordon himself had caused that, and knowing him, he was probably beating himself up over that right now. Benry felt himself tense at the thought, especially considering that they had decided to take a jab at him right after it happened. 

They looked towards the tree, blue to navy sweet voice leaking out while they tried to think of some way they could help. From what they could gather, you couldn’t put just any balls on the tree. You needed Specially Designated Tree Earrings, and he had no idea where to get those. Somehow, all of the ones Gordon owned had managed to break upon impact, not a single one came out unscathed. He didn’t think repairing them was an option. They weren’t even confident that they could somehow find more before Gordon and Joshua got back.

They shoved their hands in their pockets, they liked to grab at the loose bits of fabric in there whenever they needed to fidget. Though, when they tried to, their hand instead poked into something hard. They quickly pulled it out, seeing the red ornament they had taken earlier. Joshie would probably like to put it on the tree, but they needed more… 

Softly glowing blue orbs slowly drifted closer to the floor, hovering just below the ornament he was holding. Benry studied the blue to navy sweet voice from earlier as they continued their slow dance around him. A soft, but audible gasp escaped their lips as they got an idea, now picking their head up to fix their determined gaze upon the tree. Hopefully this would work… 

—

Gordon grit his teeth, nervously tapping at the wheel of his car as he and his son got ever closer to home. Of course, Joshie was happy to see him, and began babbling about how he was going to make it the best tree ever, that he had been given a few candy canes to put up, and how his dad would lift him up to put the star on top. With each word, Gordon felt his soul become more crushed. He still hadn’t found it in himself to tell Joshie that they wouldn’t be able to decorate the tree. He knew that the more he stalled, the more hurt Joshua would be, and he felt awful knowing that Joshie would find out through broken ornaments in the garbage. The kid did eventually seem to pick up on the anxious energy of his dad, and had quieted down a few minutes prior, confused but decidedly not prying after he got no good answers out of his father. 

Gordon gripped the wheel tighter as his house came into view, and he felt like he was driving to his doom. Though that didn’t stop him from pulling in, and helping Joshie out of the car. The kid was bouncing with renewed glee, and seemed about ready to take off for the door. Gordon leaned down and put a hand on his son’s shoulder, eyes downcast. 

“Hey bud, I gotta tell you something about today…” 

“Huh?” Joshua tilted his head, brows furrowing. 

“We probably won’t be able to-“

“uhhh come inside please? ‘s cold. you’re- you’re being really irresponsible. leaving your um… your little child out here. can’t believe you” 

Gordon turned to look at Benry giving him a blank stare through an open window. He almost felt annoyance overtake him, but as he looked closer, there was an almost… pleading look in their eyes? He gave an uncertain glance to Joshua, before standing upright.

“C’mon what is it? This isn’t really the time, man” 

“inside now? please”

Gordon sighed, but looked down towards Joshie, seeing that the kid looked like he was about to bolt inside. The physicist gave a quick nod to the guard in the window, before leading his son inside. Josh plopped down a little ways away from the two of them, struggling a bit to take off his cowboy boots. 

“What? I was about to tell him about the… y’know. I kinda wanted to avoid him finding out like this” 

“yeah well you were about to… just tell him out there. that’s not- it’s not cool”

“What does that even mean, dude? You-“

A gasp came from the living room, both of their eyes immediately shooting towards the source. Gordon now saw that Joshua was no longer in his previous spot and assumed the worst, and gave a gloomy look to his roommate. In response, the alien gave a confident smirk, which baffled the man, before grabbing his hand and leading him in.

Gordon’s jaw dropped at the sight. 

Many multi-colored orbs of light were glowing in the dim light of the room, some orbiting slowly around the tree in an almost hypnotic way, while others were still. In place of a star, there was a smaller white light that almost seemed to create a halo around the tree. Joshie could be seen energetically hopping around the base, occasionally grabbing a sweet voice orb. Gordon would have told him to not touch them, but it seemed that whenever one was taken, another would split to fill its place. Gordon eventually managed to tear his eyes away from the display, looking at Benry, who still held his hand, proudly studying his work. He couldn’t help but think that they looked stunning in the soft light. It definitely helped that they had a rare, peaceful smile on their face. 

After a few seconds, they turned to him, their gentle expression putting him in a daze. Gordon could see the usual grey in his eyes be overtaken by a rainbow of color that indicated he had obviously used a large amount of sweet voice.

“You did this…?” He began in a hushed and awed tone.

It was if his words had shocked them out of some stupor, and they blinked before settling into their usual neutral expression. 

“i’m the only one who has sweet voice?” 

“Well- yeah, I know, that’s not what I meant. I mean that you… you did this for us?” 

“yea it seems like a waste of a. kidnapped tree to not… vandalize it. couldn’t let that happen. would’ve been a disappointment” 

Gordon let out quick, but joyous laugh, pulling the guard into a side hug. 

“Thank you, Benrey. I really appreciate it” He patted the other on the back a couple times before attempting the break away. 

Benry seemed to have other plans though, and pulled Gordon back for a full-on hug. The physicist let out a startled grunt, but didn’t pull away. The hug was nice, Benrey radiating a comforting warmth as soft arms held him tightly. Gordon soon snaked his arms around the other, burying his face in their shoulder. They stood like this for a few seconds, each soaking in the other’s presence.

“I wanna join! I wanna hug too!” 

Gordon lifted his head up to see Joshie tugging at his pant leg, pleading eyes hitting him right in the heart. 

“Of course, bud, come here” He leaned down and scooped his son up in one arm, Joshua soon trying his best to wrap his smaller arms around the two adults. 

The three of them resumed the embrace, Gordon catching some pink to blue sweet voice bubbling out from the guards lips before they rested their head on top of Joshie’s. He felt himself overcome with emotion as he fondly gazed at the two who had helped him through so much since Black Mesa, Benrey’s help being, at first, unexpected but very much appreciated. He’d have to talk to Tommy about what those colors meant. 

—

Later on, Gordon had put on some cheesy Christmas movie, and was grabbing some snacks in the kitchen. Benry had pulled out the single red ornament he snatched from the box earlier that day, and floated upwards, Josh held in his arms, to let the boy put the ornament as high up as he could. Gordon came back to the sight of Joshua cheering as the first, and technically only, ornament was placed on a branch. They both descended and lightly touched the floor when he finished setting down all the snack foods on the table in front of the couch. After a bit of a food fight between Gordon and Benrey (which Benry started by flicking popcorn straight into his eye), they all settled down on the couch, Joshie dozing off as he tucked himself in between the two. A moment later, Benry put an arm around Gordon, the latter resting his head on the other’s shoulder.

Maybe Christmas was a good time of year after all.

**Author's Note:**

> hope that was Enjoyable. idk if it’s any good but it’s almost 2am and im way too tired to try and find out myself 
> 
> sweet voice guide for sexy individuals who wanna know (got these from that. that one doc. you know. the one):  
> \- yellow to gold - i’m frustrated  
> \- blue to navy - i’m sad  
> \- pink to blue - i love you 
> 
> happy frenrey day. can’t believe we made it on tumblrs top 100 ships list. wild


End file.
